Short answer. Yes, if the refusal is without legal motive. The Revised Penal Code punishes anyone elected by popular election who refuses, without legal motive, to be sworn in or to discharge the duties of the office. A genuine legal reason for declining is a defense; mere reluctance is not.
What the law says
shall be imposed upon any person who, having been elected by popular election to a public office, shall refuse without legal motive to be sworn in or to discharge the duties of said office
Revised Penal Code, Article 234 — Refusing To Serve Office. Read the full provision →
Refusing an elective office can be a crime
Winning an election is treated as carrying a duty, not just a privilege. Article 234 imposes a penalty on any person who, having been elected by popular election to a public office, shall refuse without legal motive to be sworn in or to discharge the duties of said office. The provision reflects the idea that when the electorate has chosen someone, the public has an interest in that person actually serving. A winner who simply changes his mind, finds the work inconvenient, or prefers to stay out cannot walk away freely — the law attaches a consequence to an unjustified refusal to take up the post.
The pivotal words: 'without legal motive'
The offense is not committed by every refusal, only one made without legal motive. A legal motive is a real, lawful ground that excuses the person from serving — for example a genuine disqualification, or a condition the law itself recognizes as relieving him of the duty. Where such a ground exists, declining the office is not punishable. The line therefore runs between a principled or lawful inability to serve, which the article respects, and a bare unwillingness, which it penalizes. The person who refuses must be prepared to point to a legitimate reason, because the absence of one is the very heart of the crime.
The penalty and its current amount
The punishment is arresto mayor — a relatively short term of imprisonment — or a fine, or both. The fine figure in the current text was set by Republic Act No. 10951 (2017), which revised the monetary penalties throughout the Revised Penal Code; under that amendment the fine for this offense may run up to two hundred thousand pesos. This matters because older copies of the Code still print the much smaller 1930 amounts, which are no longer the governing figures. Anyone checking the penalty should be sure they are reading the amounts as revised by that law, not a decades-old reproduction.
What this means in practice
If you were elected and do not wish to serve, understand that a refusal without a lawful reason can expose you to criminal liability, not merely political criticism. The safe course, if you believe you cannot or should not take the office, is to identify and document the legal ground you are relying on rather than simply declining. Conversely, someone with a genuine legal motive is not the target of this provision. Because whether a reason qualifies as a legal motive turns on the specific circumstances, the situation should be reviewed carefully before any refusal is acted on.